The Loveliness of Christ

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 05/20/2008 by Mark Tubbs.

Recommended. Excerpted meditations on Christ and the Christian’s relation to Christ.

I can assert immediately, before this review numbers more than twelve words, that this will be much more a devotional review than a critical one. But before setting out the many ways in which Samuel Rutherford’s The Loveliness of Christ excels as a devotional aid, let’s hone in on a few objective, tangible features.

This little book of only 108 pages is the size of an iPod Nano (pocket-sized, for those born before 1975), bound in red imitation letter with embossed lettering, and Smyth sewn for durability. The pages are the thickest I’ve seen in a long time, ideal for repetitive thumbing. One online Christian retailer bills it as a gift book, and a gift book it certainly is: a gift from Samuel Rutherford to the Christian, and from Christ to His Church.

Before launching into the Rutherford material itself, a trifecta of prefatory pieces sets up the material, respectively from the pens of the illustrious Sinclair Ferguson, a former bishop of Durham Handley Moule, and the compiler herself, Ellen Lister. Each preface reveals a slightly different type of appreciation for Rutherford’s words. Ferguson is glad that Rutherford’s “most helpful thoughts are allowed to stand out in their unadorned wisdom and power.” Bishop Moule hopes for a wide circulation (this was 1909) in order to reinstate Christ in the uppermost affections of professing Christians. Ellen Lister was struck by Rutherford’s unequivocal language: “Strong and quaint and bracing are the words of this saint of olden time, very unlike the feeble wails we often hear in these days.”

I am loath to say that the language is the one ever-so-slight drawback of this collection. Even a trained English teacher (which I am) will be stumped by some archaic Scottish terms and turns of phrase. Helpfully, a rear glossary is provided, but having to refer to the back of the book somewhat mars the devotional experience. On the other hand, I am not sure who might possess the unction to rephrase Rutherford in modern language without losing any of the vigour of mind, feeling of soul, or colour of the time in which he lived.

Subsequent to the prefatory notes, Rutherford’s meditations run for almost ninety pages and are followed by a few personal letters in their entirety, in which we are able to see Rutherford’s spiritual ruminations in context. Speaking of context, nothing remains except to excerpt some particularly moving thoughts from Rutherford’s quill:

I think I see more of Christ than I ever saw; and yet I see but little of what may be seen.

All the saints have their own measure of winter before their eternal summer. O! for the long day, and the high sun, and the fair garden, and the King’s great city up above these visible heavens!

The weightiest end of the cross of Christ that is laid upon you, lieth upon your strong Saviour.

If there were ten thousand, thousand millions of worlds, and as many heavens full of men and angels, Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants, and to fill us all.

Acquaint yourself with Christ’s love, and ye shall not miss to find new goldmines and treasures in Christ.

Now would to God, all cold-blooded, faint-hearted soldiers of Christ would look again to Jesus and to his love; and when they look, I would have them to look again and again, and fill themselves with beholding of Christ’s beauty; and I dare say then, that Christ should come in great court and request with many.

I dare say, angels’ pen, angels’ tongues, nay, as many worlds of angels as there are drops of water in all the seas, and fountains, and rivers of the earth, cannot paint him out to you.

To quote a line from an old praise song, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” The above lines from Rutherford lend themselves to the application in that praise song. As someone once encouraged me, “for every look at yourself, take ten looks at the Saviour.” This little collection of Rutherford quotes will equip the believer for ten looks at the Saviour, and a hundred more beside.